High Power Laser Science and Engineering, Volume. 13, Issue 1, 01000e11(2025)

Generation of radioisotopes for medical applications using high-repetition, high-intensity lasers

Katarzyna Liliana Batani1,*... Marcia R. D. Rodrigues2, Aldo Bonasera2,3, Mattia Cipriani4, Fabrizio Consoli4, Francesco Filippi4, Massimiliano M. Scisciò4, Lorenzo Giuffrida5, Vasiliki Kantarelou5, Stanislav Stancek5,6, Roberto Lera7, Jose Antonio Pérez-Hernández7, Luca Volpe7,8, I. C. Edmond Turcu9,10, Matteo Passoni11, Davide Vavassori11, David Dellasega11, Alessandro Maffini11, Marine Huault12,13, Howel Larreur12,13,14, Louis Sayo13, Thomas Carriere13, Philippe Nicolai13, Didier Raffestin13, Diluka Singappuli13 and Dimitri Batani13 |Show fewer author(s)
Author Affiliations
  • 1Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion (IPPLM), Warsaw, Poland
  • 2Cyclotron Institute, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA
  • 3Laboratori Nazionali del Sud-INFN, Catania, Italy
  • 4ENEA, Nuclear Department, C.R. Frascati, Frascati, Italy
  • 5ELI Beamlines Facility, The Extreme Light Infrastructure ERIC, Dolni Brezany, Czech Republic
  • 6Joint Laboratory of Optics of Palacky University and Institute of Physics of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Faculty of Science, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
  • 7Centro de Láseres Pulsados (CLPU), Villamayor, Spain
  • 8ETSI Aeronaútica y del Espacio, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
  • 9UKRI/STFC Central Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, UK
  • 10Extreme Light Infrastructure: Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP), Magurele, Romania
  • 11Dipartimento di Energia, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
  • 12Departamento de Física fundamental, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
  • 13CELIA – Centre Lasers Intenses et Applications, Université de Bordeaux, Talence, France
  • 14HB11 Energy, Sydney, Australia
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    Figures & Tables(13)
    Scheme of the experimental setup. In the configuration with the BNH6 catcher, the pitcher–catcher distance was 2 cm, the catcher–CR39 distance was 52 cm and the angle between laser propagation and catcher normal was 50°. The TNSA shielding prevented protons and other ions emitted from the pitcher reaching the CR39.
    Energy calibration of the HPGe detector: (left) channel–energy relation; (right) superposition of the spectra obtained with the radioactive sources.
    Activity calibration line showing the peak detection efficiency as a function of γ-ray photon energy (considering counts recorded during a 5-min acquisition).
    γ-ray detector sensitivity variation while displacing the sources in the vertical direction with respect to the detector.
    γ-ray detector sensitivity variation while displacing the sources in the horizontal direction with respect to the detector.
    Compton shoulder in the spectrum recorded with the 137Cs source having a single-line source at 662 keV in logarithmic scale.
    γ-ray spectrum recorded from a BNH6 (ammonia borane) pellet irradiated with 31 laser shots (accumulation time over 100 min).
    Count decay in time of the 511 keV line from the irradiated BNH6 (ammonia borane) pellet. The time 0 in this graph corresponds to the beginning of the measurement with the HPGe detector, typically about half an hour after the end of the irradiation (due to the time needed to vent the chamber, extract the sample and insert it in the HPGe detector).
    (Left) Recorded γ-ray spectrum at The line at 1669 keV corresponds to the simultaneous absorption of photons at 1157 keV and 511 keV. (Right) Decay of the emission line at 1157 keV with time.
    (Left) Accumulated γ-ray spectrum from the Ca2SiO4 sample in the range 350 keV 43Sc and 7Be γ-ray emission lines are superimposed to the Compton shoulder. (Right) The same after removing the Compton shoulder and after smoothing. The sample was irradiated for 33 min, and the measurement was accumulated over 225 min.
    • Table 1. Calculation of the activity corresponding to each γ-ray energy in the spectra emitted by the calibration sources.

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      Table 1. Calculation of the activity corresponding to each γ-ray energy in the spectra emitted by the calibration sources.

      EnergySourceIsotopeInitialHalf-lifeDate ofSpentActivity in MarchProbabilityLine activity
      [keV]activity [kBq][year]purchasetime [year]2023 [kBq]today [kBq]
      43.37522Na155Eu155Eu37.0004.76007–7–201111.7506.68760.120000.80251
      60.25022Na155Eu155Eu37.0004.76007–7–201111.7506.68760.0122000.081589
      86.54022Na155Eu155Eu37.0004.76007–7–201111.7506.68760.308542.0634
      105.3022Na155Eu155Eu37.0004.76007–7–201111.7506.68760.211001.4111
      511.0022Na155Eu22Na37.0002.60007–7–201111.7501.61461.79802.9031
      661.66137Cs137Cs9.800030.17027–10–20211.30009.51170.850008.0849
      1173.260Co60Co37.0005.270023–4–20166.910014.9080.9985014.886
      1274.522Na155Eu22Na37.0002.60007–7–201111.6701.64940.999401.6484
      1332.560Co60Co37.0005.270023–5–20166.830015.0710.9998315.068
    • Table 2. Production and decay chain for the scandium radioisotopes observed in our experiment.

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      Table 2. Production and decay chain for the scandium radioisotopes observed in our experiment.

      RadioisotopeLifetimeProductionDecay
      43Sc3.89 hα + 40Ca → 43Sc + pα + 40Ca →43Ti + n, 43Ti (T1/2 = 509 ms) → 43Sc + e+ + νep + 43Ca → 43Sc + np + 44Ca → 43Sc + 2n43Sc→ 43Ca + e+ + ${\nu_\mathrm{e}}$
      44Sc3.97 hp + 44Ca → 44Sc + n44Sc→ 44Ca + e+ + ${\nu_\mathrm{e}}$
      48Sc43.67 hp + 48Ca → 48Sc + n, α + 46Ca → 48Sc + 2n48Sc→ 48Ti + e + ${\overline{\nu}_\mathrm{e}}$
    • Table 3. Abundance of stable isotopes of calcium (except 48Ca, which is practically stable with a lifetime of 6.4 1019 years).

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      Table 3. Abundance of stable isotopes of calcium (except 48Ca, which is practically stable with a lifetime of 6.4 1019 years).

      Isotope40Ca42Ca43Ca44Ca46Ca48Ca
      Abundance96.9%0.657%0.135%2.09%0.004%0.187%
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    Katarzyna Liliana Batani, Marcia R. D. Rodrigues, Aldo Bonasera, Mattia Cipriani, Fabrizio Consoli, Francesco Filippi, Massimiliano M. Scisciò, Lorenzo Giuffrida, Vasiliki Kantarelou, Stanislav Stancek, Roberto Lera, Jose Antonio Pérez-Hernández, Luca Volpe, I. C. Edmond Turcu, Matteo Passoni, Davide Vavassori, David Dellasega, Alessandro Maffini, Marine Huault, Howel Larreur, Louis Sayo, Thomas Carriere, Philippe Nicolai, Didier Raffestin, Diluka Singappuli, Dimitri Batani. Generation of radioisotopes for medical applications using high-repetition, high-intensity lasers[J]. High Power Laser Science and Engineering, 2025, 13(1): 01000e11

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    Paper Information

    Category: Research Articles

    Received: Jun. 18, 2024

    Accepted: Dec. 16, 2024

    Posted: Dec. 19, 2024

    Published Online: Mar. 21, 2025

    The Author Email: Katarzyna Liliana Batani (katarzyna.batani@ifpilm.pl)

    DOI:10.1017/hpl.2024.92

    CSTR:32185.14.hpl.2024.92

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